Genki Sudo Invades New York - MiddleEasy Exclusive

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Aug 10 |02:54

Last Updated on Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:49

While most people joined the science club or tried out for an intramural soccer team, I spent the majority of my youth in front of a television eating tacos and watching combat sports. On weekends, I would get invited to pool parties & BBQ, but turned them all down to watch VHS recordings of Pride Grand-Prix tournaments to the point that I memorized all the commentating, even if it was in Japanese. The sudden influx of MMA fans in recent years make me feel like much less of a social-outcast, but they can’t truly jump on the Mixed Martial Arts bandwagon until they properly acknowledge the most visually-dynamic icon of the sport.

To say that Genki Sudo left an impression on MMA is as big of an understatement as saying that Chael Sonnen has the best vocabulary at Team Quest, or that Mel Gibson has the worst vocabulary in the history of celebrity relationships. Genki fused showmanship into devastating brutality and transformed MMA into a spectacle - making it worthy of ninety-thousand person arenas. His charismatic allure trumped our Top Ten Epic Entrances list and our Top Ten Fighters You Should Build a Shrine To.

In addition to intensive muay-thai, akido, drunken-boxing, jiu-jitsu, karate, and judo, he practices perplexing rhythmic dance moves that make other humanoids look like an inferior species. He then coined the phrase 'We Are All One' to represent the power he draws from each and every person on the planet; which he uses to transcend his consciousness through various metaphysical dimensions, returning that energy into an organized form of robotic symmetry. If any of that made sense to you, you’re too raw for society and you should drop us a postcard from the unknown.

As for the rest of you, I don’t have much more of an explanation. What I did have was an opportunity to meet the legendary Genki Sudo at the Kinokuniya Bookstore in New York City and talk about trans-dimensional movement and what the future is going to be like. For the most part he smiled and nodded, and I understood everything he was thinking via mental osmosis. The conversation was everything I dreamed it would be.

He then handed me a flier for an event at Cielo in Manhattan’s meatpacking district where I was able to record the only known footage in existence of him performing in America by hiding under a VIP table for 40 minutes with a six-pound digital SLR and a gin & tonic. I then ran home and watched the rogue footage on repeat for three straight hours. I feel like this video is the ultimate culmination of work from a demi-god I grew up idolizing, and before anyone else on earth got to see it, I marveled in admiration at what would eventually become the world’s definitive tribute to Genki Sudo. I probably would have hogged it longer than just three hours but Cat, Jason, and Zeus threatened to fly to NYC and rip my head off if I didn’t start uploading the videos to our server (thanks for not decapitating me guys).

After the jump, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll know Genki Sudo. That in itself will make you a better person.

Special thanks to Jason for the countless hours editing this footage.

We are all 'done'.